Oakcliff International - Disappointing result for Team Gilmour
by Team Gilmour on 12 Sep 2013
Team Gilmour at the Oakcliff International Team Gilmour
A disappointing fourth place at the Oakcliff International has resulted in Team Gilmour losing our lead in the US Grand Slam series to Danish skipper Nicolai Sehested and his Tre-For Match Racing Team.
'We just werent on our 'A game' for the semi finals, and racing against experienced match racers like Eric Monnin, you need to be' said skipper David Gilmour.
We had some close races against Monnin of Switzerland, he managed to take the first two races in the best of five series, but we were able to win the next two to take it to a fifth and final race. But we were sailing a little too risky and although we won the start Monnin picked some nice shifts and was able to take race and move into the semi finals. This was the point at which the US Grand Slam slipped away as Nicolai Sehested had won his semi final which gave him enough points to take out the overall prize leaving TG in second overall.
We were then paired against Mark Lees from Great Britain for the petit final. Lees took the first but we came back to win the second race by a significant margin, however in the third and final race, we won the start again but still sailed too loose and Lees picked up a favorable shift and led from there. TG finished the Oakcliff International in fourth place. 'We feel that we did have moments where we were sailing really well, but just weren't able to sail consistently throughout the event' said bowman Pete Nicholas.
Although we were disappointed at not taking out the US Grand Slam, we feel that we have really grown as a team. Having competed in five events over the last five weeks has helped our team improve a huge amount and we are feeling more polished than ever. Obviously there is room for improvement and there always is, but these events have allowed us to improve our communication onboard as well as our match racing skills in general.
TG will now be taking a small break as the team heads their separate ways to compete in sailing events all around the world.
A big thanks to all of the people who have hosted us and looked after us over the last five weeks as well as all the events.
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